This is not going to be a small one

I intended telling you about the lovely walk around Wisbech I took part in a couple of weeks ago but so much has been going on here that I’ll just give you a brief glimpse into it all or you might get bored…

So the walk, it took about 3.5 hours and I was amazed that I enjoyed it so much. I think chatting to the others in the group all the way round helped me to not notice the length of the walk

Do you see that poster about Les Mis? Well it was outside a darling little cinema in Wisbech, we passed it on our walk. I didn’t know it existed but it is such a gem of a find! Once home I immediately went to the website for The Luxe and booked up to see that wonderful film! We sat on Leather sofas, took out drinks in with us, could even have a cake or a snack if we had wanted. It is just such a brilliant place…I must get on and book us a sofa to go and see Quartet as soon as it’s available Writing this has made me all excited about going again..

Shortly before the walk I finished my Scatness Tam, I love it and wore it all the time we were walking, good job we didn’t stop for a drink as me hair would have looked a bit scary if I’d taken the hat off Delightful pattern by the way, I’m going to make the tunic to go with it though I’m not sure I’ll wear them at the same time…

Then I went on a bootie felting frenzie….all by the late Bev Galeskas, her patterns are all so well written and usually work out fine

The first pair of these wrap around boots was ruined in the washing machine, all that knitting and they came out of the machine like a tumble dryer ball!

So the next pairs were hand felted, which really is hard work, I end up wet through with all the splashing and squelching.

Then I read that someone had felted her little boots in a stand alone mixer using the dough hook, if I wasn’t so bootie’d out I’d knit another pair just to try this out

This is Esme saying thank you Grandma for her new cardi and boots!

I made a few pairs of mitts over the holidays and this last pair were for my Mum, she loves them and her friend has ordered another couple of pairs of them, I’ve ordered the yarn, hopefully I can remember the pattern as I didn’t write it down. I modified another pattern which was in a four ply weight, these are a bit quicker as I knitted them in double knitting.  I have a bit of a thing going with the channel island cast on and wanted the pretty nobbles to be around the finger section, so I simply worked the mittens upside down

I am in the process of making myself a lovely floppy big cabled jumper using these two gorgeous Skein Queen yarns held together, it is producing the most delicious fabric…I need another skein of the beige yarn and am waiting for Debbie to dye me up another so I can do the yoke of my jumper, it is on hold for the time being

I’ve also been sewing for my shop, I really missed my sewing machine over the holidays and getting her out of her cabinet and actually sewing on her felt like coming home…

I’ve been working on a new bag for Fluff-n-Stuff too, I call it The Quilted Basket

I’ve already had a couple of orders for it so it looks like a good idea to make more of them..

I’ve got my Cabled jumper in the prototype of this bag and I love how it feels. Hard to describe but it is sort of squidgy, stands up on it’s own, has a roomy pocket on the front and the straps have a length of plastic tubing inside them which make them very comfortable to hold. It would also be a great bag to take on a trip to the shops…love it!

I’ve also finished some spinning that I started in Australia last year…ahhh Australia…warm, sunshine….mmmmmm 3-2-1 back in the room brrrrrrrr

This some of my hand dyed Polwarth fibre in Sliced Denim colourway, I managed just over 600 metres of yarn and have ordered some denim coloured beads to knit myself a lacy scarf

After learning that my Aunty Sally was on a marmalade making marathon I decided that for the first time in my life I would make some marmalade! Not traditional marmalade I hasten to add, but this amazingly quick microwave recipe. I had a pile of limes up to no good in my fridge (I only ordered one lime but ended up with 7!!) so I used 4 limes and one lemon for the recipe and once it had reached setting point and cooled a little I stirred in a generous slosh of Cointreau. Barry has given it his seal of approval.

I’ll leave you with a photo of the quiche I made yesterday…my son and daughter-in-law bought me The Hairy Dieters book for Christmas, and after watching their programmes on the television i felt enthused to start dieting a bit, not being silly but just eating a little healthier. The meat and potato pies are amazing and the pizza dough works so well as a pie crust! This quiche was meant to have some asparagus in it but I knew my husband wouldn’t eat that so I added some cherry tomatoes instead. I used an 8” loose bottom cake tin as I don’t own a fluted loose bottom tart tin. The cake tin worked brilliantly, I draped the filo pastry over the sides, added the filling and then carefully crumpled up the overlaps to edge the quiche. Oh and instead of using oil on the edges, I sprayed some frylight on it. We both loved this quiche and had it with the fruity rice salad from the book too

Congratulations on reaching the end of this mammoth post!

ETA: I still have a couple of places available on my Luxury Fibre Club, you can read about the club here…send me a message somehow if you’re interested in joining in. I will be posting the fibre sometime during the week beginning Monday 4th February 🙂

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